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'....status quo creates higher costs and increases the chance of a person not safe to practise remaining in the profession.'

Is this really a correct assessment? Will not a lowering of the standard of proof lead to a proliferation of cases reaching the SDT as case buiders gauge the height of the bar to get home with their prosecution? Further, there will be uncertainty created where solicitors are cleared in the criminal court and yet struck off. This in turn will increase the number of appeals against decisions, which in any event have hitherto awaited the outcome of criminal proceedings.